Archive

Quotes

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

—Anthony Burgess, 1972

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

—G.K. Chesterton, 1908

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

—H. Rap Brown, 1967

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

—Charles de Gaulle, 1963

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

—Al Smith, 1933

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

—John Wilkes Booth, 1865

A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.

—David Foster Wallace, 2000

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

—Laozi

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

—Henrik Ibsen, 1882

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

—Magna Carta, 1215

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

—Alexander Hamilton, 1787

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

—Lord Acton, 1887